Bubble Gum Pop Rap Lite
Mini blog!!!
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The Joy of Being Left-Handed (Soul Train Article)
- Malina Moye: (....) He gave me a regular guitar, a right-handed guitar, and well, I’m left handed. I tried to learn it the regular way, but I just couldn’t get it, so when he left the room I would flip the guitar upside down and play it that way.
- Me: What made you wanna play lefty upside down instead of playing the other way?
- MM: It just seemed natural and so comfortable. It’s funny because my father said to me, “Why didn’t we just buy you a left-handed guitar?” I’m like, “I was a kid, how was I supposed to know?!” Honestly, I tried to play it regularly but it just wouldn’t work for me because I guess my brain is so backwards that I just couldn’t get it. I’m just going with what works.
- Me: I’m left handed as well, so I get what you mean when you say you feel like your brain is backwards– mainly because everything is so right-handed oriented.
- MM: Right! As I got around experienced players, and developed my tone and style, I’ve learned that there are certain things a lefty can do that a righty can’t, and vice versa. That’s what’s so incredible about the guitar: No two people will sound the same – no matter how hard they may try to sound like someone else.
- Me: Wow! I can see that because of just how the guitar’s strings are laid out like a spectrum, so a spectrum of sound comes with that, maybe?
- MM: Yeah, I definitely agree. The guitar is a lot like a voice in that everyone’s tone is different. Maybe you don’t sing or play great in terms of measuring it according to another person, but you will find your own style and go with that. Who’s to say something is right or wrong? If it feels good and it feels right, that’s what you should do.
- Read on! soultrain.com/2012/04/19/sound-check-malina-moye-turns-the-world-lefty-upside-down/
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What didn't make it: Saul Williams
- Saul Williams: (...) My favorite artist right now is M.I.A, and really some of the best artists are not from here. They are taking stuff from here and freaking it. I would love to see us take something and freak it on the levels that I see it happening internationally with the Bjorks, the Radioheads and all that.
- Me: I was just listening to M.I.A’s new song “Bad Girls" -
- Saul: That video is crazy!
- Me: Oh my God, yes! I'm like 'for real? You just wanna have those cars sitting like that though?!'
- Saul: And making Texas look like 'really, Texas?!' Texas oil is just insignificant to her.
- Me: Right, she just constantly makes the US feel like we ain't shit. All the time though!
- Read the published interview on Soul Train's website here --> soultrain.com/2012/02/29/saul-williams-and-the-agenda-less-sonic-agenda/ :
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Soul Train | Sound Check: Saidah Baba Talibah
Fun, fun interview I did with “raunchy soul” T-Dot rockster Saidah Baba Talibah. In this interview I captured how much of a liberating woman she is, and how she uses her music as that exact muse.
Much got cut because it got pretty vulgar and the language and a bunch of things I got a nice email over, but here’s an excerpt of what we talked about:
SBT: Well, I put the S in brackets because when I wrote the song I would say “cream or scream,” so I leave it up to the listener to do either/or, or both because you could very well scream as you cream.
ST: Oh! Got it. Or, sometimes you may have to scream and not even get the chance to cream!
SBT: Exactly! And might have to say, “Are we done yet?”
ST: I mean, I don’t know if I wanna scream all of that. At least make that person feel like they put forth some effort.
SBT: Right, that’s true. But in this case of the song it’s both. Talking about the lust you continue to feel for the person that you’ve been with for five or ten years.
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Excerpt of My Nicolay Interview from Frank151
- Me: The best thing about what I do is...
- Nicolay: ...doing everything on our own terms and building our own industry.
- Me: And the worst part is...
- Nicolay: ...doing everything else means you’ll end up working too hard. You can’t just call in sick with this, so we gotta have the ability to keep going all the time.
- Me: The most addictive thing in my life right now is...
- Nicolay: ...Counter Culture coffee!
- Me: More people should know that...
- Nicolay: ...do not mistake my kindness for weakness. I can be a very nice guy, but come at me wrong and it's a problem!
- Me: I always notice when...
- Nicolay: ...when I’m on the road, finding as much comfort as possible. Good food, good sleep - no, great sleep - and great hotels...
- READ MORE HERE: www.frank151.com/blog/2011/11/07/frank_discussions_nicolay
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Get to know J-Live (What Didn't Make It)
- J-Live: You got me right when I was about to get my Instagram on with this record I found.
- Me: Haha, oh, have you seen the AT&T commercial where two guys were tailgating, had their iPads out tweeting and on Facebook, beating everybody to what was going on at that time. Someone would run to them screaming about the mascot being stolen, and they already twitpic’d the scene and went “oh, that was so 56 seconds ago!”
- J-Live: No, I need to check that out. It seems like everybody knows about technology and the ways, the language too. My mom knows about LOL now!
- Me: Yeah, I was just talking to my sister this morning about how kids will use acronyms to cuss now. Like if they wanna say “oh, that’s badass,” they’ll say “that’s so BA,” or if they wanna say punk-ass they’ll say PA.
- J-Live: Oh, really? This is all new to me so I gotta watch out! I hear them say that, I’ll say “what you call me? I know what that means!” Those could be fighting words. When I was teaching in Brownsville, they used “ABG” for “anybody could get it.”
- Me: Oh yeah, fighting words for real!
- J-Live: It tripped me out because one of the older gods I knew went by ABG. When I heard kids shouting ABG, at first I was like “yall know ABG? Oh, that’s not it.”
- Me: Haha, completely wrong acronym right there. But to get back on track...
- Check out the actual interview here! http: //www.examiner.com/local-music-in-atlanta/get-to-know-j-live
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What Didn't Make It: Phife Dawg on ATL and Current Music Scene
- Me (Starletta Watson. So credit me for this interview, dammit!): I see you stay in Atlanta all the time, and show mad love for the ATL, how do you feel about being part of the One MusicFest in terms of the Atlanta acts that have hit the stage?
- Phife: It's good. I moved down here back in 1993, then moved to the Bay Area and got married in 04/05. So coming back and seeing the growth of these artists because I remember when they first started, and was grinding really, really hard, it's really appealing to see them come up from nothing.
- Me: So how do you feel about the city's scene now currently?
- Phife: I'm loving the ATL right now. The ATL has always been slept on, music-wise, other then like when they had the Xscape's, the Outkast's, the T.I.'s and Luda's. But it's still slept on and it's just getting bigger and broader. The underground scene and everything is coming together.
- Me: Yeah, so I wanna ask you about the new people in hiphop. You got cats blowing up like Odd Future and Lil' B, and I just wanna know your opinion on it as we are sitting here in this old school-type vibe.
- Phife: Look, I'm so old school, I haven't even heard a lot of the new stuff. I'm still at home playing Chic and The Isley's on vinyl, the Sylvers, finding the hooks that I want.
- Me: YES!!! Sorry.
- Phife: I heard a lot of good things about Lil' B's new project. J Cole is dope, Diggy Simmons - I'm looking forward to that. There's a whole bunch of dudes I've heard of, but haven't listened to yet...
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One MusicFest Coverage | BlackVibes.com
I had a blast covering One MusicFest with Rhythmic Images for BlackVibes.com.
Click the link for the day’s scoop!
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Interviewing Cash Cab's Ben Bailey (what didn't make it: why 2 people should never use speakerphone)
- Me: You still manage to do stand-up on top of Cash Cab. What kind of material do you usually have when you’re on stage?
- Ben Bailey: My jokes kind of come out of nowhere (… you have to see the interview on SlapStik’s Blog) A friend of mine called it surreal observation and I thought that was a pretty good description.
- Me: Can you say that one more time please? I want to make sure I got this right – serial observation?
- Ben: Surreal observation.
- Me: Serial observational?
- Ben: Hold on, let me take you off speakerphone. Sur-real observation. Yeah, speakerphone is not cutting it.
- Me: Sorry about that, but I too have you on speaker to record the conversation.
- Ben: Oh, you too? Ha! No wonder, the double speaker got us. Now there’s a bit in there about how two people can’t use the speakerphone at the same time.
- Me: Right! Just bad miscommunication laced all in there. Like, “what? You do cereal observation?”
- Ben: “Did you say you only do jokes about cereal?” Yes, I’m a cereal observationalist. I can’t stop observing cereal!
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Why I Loved Record Store Day: Interviewing ATL's Applejac (DJ) and Illastrate (Hiphop Producer)
- This was done during an interview I did with them when I ran into them during my coverage of Record Store Day in Little Five Points in Atlanta. It was a hiphop history 101 (and techno history 101) session going down!
- Applejac: ... yeah, my first record I bought with my own money was "The Wikki Wikki Song"
- Me: Wow. Wikki, wikki, wikki, Newcleus?
- Applejac: Yep, the 12"
- Illastrate: Word? I remember when I had "Push The Button"
- Applejac: Ohhh, WORD?!
- Illastrate: Matter of fact, I don't even know how I had it. I think my sister had it, and I just always kept it. I remember the cover on it too.
- Applejac: Yeah, the cover was crazy, had the space suits and stuff. Like Cybotron, you remember Cybotron, right?
- Illastrate: I believe so.
- Applejac: Story about Cybotron: Do you know who that actually was? Fucking Derrick May and them from Detroit. Juan Atkins and some other cats were a part of Cybotron too, but they were what folks would term now early techno.
- Illastrate: You see? This guy right here!
- Me: Now look, I’m still recording, but I hope I can use that because that was definitely some hiphop history right there!
